GAME
RECAP: Mets Silence Phillies 5-0
The Mets
arrived in Philadelphia closer in the National League East standings to the
fourth-place Phillies than the first-place Nationals, desperate for a series
win. Jacob deGrom delivered
just that in a 5-0 win over the Phillies on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank
Park. The Phillies' lone hit came off the bat of deGrom's counterpart, Zach Eflin, who ripped
a single up the middle in the third. But for the eight batters prior and 19
batters after, deGrom didn't allow another base knock. He became the first Mets
pitcher to toss a one-hit shutout since R.A. Dickey struck
out 13 Orioles on June 18, 2012. Before Sunday, there had been four one-hit
shutouts in which the opposing pitcher had the only hit in Mets history. The
most recent also came against Philadelphia, when Cole Hamels singled
off Dickey in a 1-0 Mets win on Aug. 13, 2010. "Probably since we came out
of Spring Training [deGrom has been building to this]," Mets manager Terry
Collins said. "There was all that concern about his velocity early, but
he's just gotten a little stronger and a little stronger. … You saw better
command today and probably the best sinker he had all year." It was the
first time the Phillies have been held to one hit since Sept. 15, 2015, when
the Nationals' Stephen Strasburg silenced
them with 14 strikeouts. deGrom didn't quite match Strasburg, punching out
seven Phillies, but flirted with a Greg Maddux -- a complete game on fewer than
100 pitches -- ultimately recording his first career complete game on 105
pitches. "Command of his pitches, changed speeds, worked fast, he did
everything you want your pitchers to do," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin
said of deGrom. Mackanin opened the second half by remarking that his team is
shooting for an NL Wild Card spot, but the series loss to the Mets drops them
seven back in that race. "It's gonna be important," Collins said.
"We know going to Chicago, it's going to be a dogfight there. Same thing
in Miami. … Just continue on."
PHILS PHACTS:
- Eflin, the Phillies' rookie right-hander, had his fifth
straight quality start on Sunday, giving up three runs on five hits in six
innings. The five hits were the most Eflin has allowed since his forgettable
MLB debut in Toronto (eight earned runs in 2 2/3 innings), and three of
those hits went for extra bases. Eflin limited the damage by getting Neil Walker to
ground out with the bases loaded to end the fifth. "He didn't have
his 'A' game, but he gave us a chance to win," Phillies catcher Cameron Rupp said.
"He was a little bit up in the zone, fell behind some hitters, and
when he went up 0-2, he couldn't put them away."
- Phillies All-Star Odubel Herrera has enjoyed success this
season while facing the Marlins, batting .364 (8-for-23).
- Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton is just 1-for-18 (.056)
with a home run and 12 strikeouts this season against the Phillies.
Lifetime at Citizens Bank Park, he has 10 homers in 39 games.
- The Marlins gave center fielder Marcell Ozuna a breather on
Sunday at St. Louis. Ozuna, who started for the NL in the All-Star Game,
has two home runs and four RBIs vs. Philadelphia.
NEXT
GAME:
Positioning in the
National League East is at stake when the Marlins open a four-game series at
the Phillies on Monday at Citizens Bank Park. Miami is in the thick of the NL
Wild Card race and aiming to gain ground on the division-leading Nationals,
while Philadelphia hopes to climb into Wild Card contention. The Marlins will
turn to ace Jose Fernandez to kick off the four-game set. The Phillies counter
with promising right-hander Aaron Nola, who will make just his second start of
the month. Fernandez, starting for the first time since Tuesday's All-Star
Game, has been among the hottest pitchers in the NL. In his last 11 starts, the
hard-throwing right-hander is 8-2 with a 1.71 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 73 2/3
innings. Nola, who last pitched on July 2 against the Royals, is 0-4 since his
last win on June 5. At home, he is 2-6 with a 5.28 ERA.
PHILS PHACTS:
Resuscitated Quality Start – Zach Eflin had a
good idea of Jacob deGrom's
mindset Sunday. "Outings like that, they feed off momentum," said
Eflin, who threw a complete game against the Braves earlier in the month. Eflin
was the only Phillie that was able to disrupt deGrom in their 5-0 loss to
the Mets on Sunday. The 22-year-old's third-inning single was his team's only
hit of the afternoon, as deGrom was dominant in his first career complete game.
Eflin, meanwhile, could not find his groove, but he didn't let that stop him
from turning in his fifth consecutive quality start. The Phillies' right-hander
made his fair share of mistakes -- leaving balls up in the zone and not
finishing once he got ahead in counts. But Eflin never allowed more than one
run in an inning, yielding three earned on five hits in six frames. "I
think I did a good job of limiting the damage when I needed to, but I know I
left some balls up that shouldn't have been up," he said. "I didn't
have my best stuff today, but I was able to battle." Eflin now has a 2.56
ERA in his last six starts following a lousy debut in which he gave up eight
earned runs to the Blue Jays in 2 2/3 innings on June 14. The five hits he
allowed on Sunday were the most since his debut, and Eflin struggled both when
he was up in the count and when there were two outs. Three of the Mets' five
hits off Eflin were RBI extra-base hits with two outs. Juan Lagares got
the scoring started with an RBI triple in the second, and Curtis Granderson made
it 2-0 with a towering solo homer in the third. Both hitters turned 0-2 counts
into full counts before driving in a run. "He made some mistakes,"
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said of Eflin. "One of the things we have
to address as a group is when we get hitters 0-2 or get ahead of hitters, we
have to be able to put them away. We were having trouble doing that. The 0-2
count to Granderson went to 3-2, and he hit a home run off a mistake up in the
zone." A Jose Reyes double
made it 3-0 in the fifth inning, and Eflin followed it with back-to-back walks.
A loss of command is rare for the rookie, who had given just two free passes in
his previous 27 innings entering Sunday. But with the bases loaded, Eflin
buckled down and got Neil Walker to
ground out to end the threat. Eflin went back out and threw a 1-2-3 sixth
inning to ensure a quality start. Eflin was not the star or his best self on
Sunday, but he still showed why the Phillies hope he can be part of the
rotation for the foreseeable future. "He's 22 years old in his first year
at the big league level, and I really like him," Mackanin said. "He
has a great future ahead of him. ... He made a few more mistakes than he
probably should have, but he pitched a quality start."
I
Got It! – Neil Walker popped up
in the fourth inning of the Mets' 5-0 win over the Phillies on Sunday afternoon, sending the
ball floating in between third base and shortstop. So, both Maikel Franco and
Freddy Galvis went for it. But which one of them caught it? They're so
accomplished at mimicking each other that it's nearly impossible to tell which
one of them actually intended to reel in the ball. Franco, because he looked
more at the ready? Or Galvis, who could've been sandbagging? Well, you have a
50-50 shot at guessing. This isn't a trick question, either. One of them caught
it, and Walker was retired for the first out of the inning. The answer... Galvis,
very casually. But honestly, it could've gone either way.
Today
In Phils History – Despite surrendering 21 hits, the Phillies pulled
off an 11 inning win over the Cubs in 1912 when Gavvy Cravath stole home as
part of a double steal. A decade later, 11 year old Bob “Tuffy Reds” Cotter
caught a foul ball and kept it rather than throwing it back which was common
practice at the time resulting in him being arrests and sent to jail from which
he was freed the next morning by a judge who stated that he was “following his
most natural instincts” resulting in the Phillies becoming the 1st
team with an official policy allowing fans to keep foul balls. In 1943, The
Giants and Phillies strand a combined 30 base runners to set a new MLB record. In
the 2nd game of a double header against St. Louis in 1954, the
Phillies took a 8-1 lead in the 5th when the Cardinals began
stalling in the hopes of preventing the game from becoming official before the
Sunday curfew which was frowned upon by the umpires who declared the game a
Phillies victory by forfeit. Despite being in 1st place at the time,
Phillies GM Paul “The Pope” Owens fired Pat Corrales and took over the
managerial duties, for the 2nd time, for the remainder of the 1983
season.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 43-50 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. All time, the Phillies are 49-61-0 on this day. I expect
the Phillies to finish in the bottom half of the division but not last in the
NL East by finishing the season with a 77-85 record.
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